A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computerized techniques for diagnosis and planning medical and dental treatment of human patients. More particularly, the invention is directed to a unified workstation and associated computerized techniques for creating a virtual three-dimensional model of the patient, including bone, soft tissue, and teeth from data from a variety of diverse imaging sources. The invention is also related to computer software tools enabling a user to use such a virtual model for diagnosis and planning treatment of craniofacial structures of the patient, including teeth, and for export of data to diverse manufacturers of therapeutic devices for the patient, such as orthodontic appliances.
B. Description of Related Art
The diagnosis and treatment of patients with craniofacial problems or disease typically begins with the obtaining of clinical history, medical history, dental history, ultrasonic scanned images, 2D or 3D scanned images, photographs, and 2D or 3D X-rays. Such X-rays are taken from the front and the side view. X-rays are also taken to show the condition of the teeth and the jaws. At this stage, diagnosis and treatment planning is often done by the practitioner on a sheet of acetate over the X-rays. Generally, this process is not very scientific, and it is time consuming and requires experience. There is no guarantee how good the results of the treatment will be. Similarly, orthodontists typically mentally visualize a target or desired occlusion for an orthodontic patient and attempt to bend archwires by hand to move teeth to the desired position. This approach also lacks reliability, reproducibility and precision.
More sophisticated, computer-based approaches to diagnosis and treatment planning of craniofacial structures, including the straightening of teeth, have been proposed. See Andreiko, U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,289; Snow, U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,482; Kopelmann et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,314; Doyle, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,158; Wu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,198, and Chisti et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,975,893 and 6,227,850, the contents of each of which is incorporated by reference herein. Also, imaging and medical diagnostic software and related products are marketed by Dolphin Imaging, 661 Independence Avenue, Canoga Park, Calif. 91309-2944. A method for generation of a 3D model of the dentition from an in-vivo scan of the patient, and interactive computer-based treatment planning for orthodontic patients, is described in published PCT patent application of OraMetrix, Inc., the assignee of this invention, publication no. WO 01/80761, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Other background references related to capturing three dimensional models of dentition and associated craniofacial structures include S. M. Yamany and A. A. Farag, “A System for Human Jaw Modeling Using Intra-Oral Images” in Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. (EMBS) Conf, Vol. 20, Hong Kong, October 1998, pp. 563-566; and M. Yamany, A. A. Farag, David Tasman, A. G. Farman, “A 3-D Reconstruction System for the Human Jaw Using a Sequence of Optical Images,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 19, No. 5, May 2000, pp. 538-547. The contents of these references are incorporated by reference herein.
The technical literature further includes a body of literature describing the creation of 3D models of faces from photographs, and computerized facial animation and morphable modeling of faces. See, e.g., Pighin et al., Synthesizing Realistic Facial Expression from Photographs, Computer Graphics Proceedings SIGGRAPH '98, pp. 78-94 (1998); Pighin et al., Realistic Facial Animation Using Image-based 3D Morphing, Technical Report no. UW-CSE-97-01-03, University of Washington (May 9, 1997); and Blantz et al., A Morphable Model for The Synthesis of 3D Faces, Computer Graphics Proceedings SIGGRAPH '99 (August, 1999). The contents of these references are incorporated by reference herein.
The art has lacked a truly integrated and unified system in which soft tissue (skin, lips, etc.) and the underlying bone and other craniofacial features, including teeth, are superimposed and registered together in a common coordinate system to create a complete virtual patient model that also includes the exterior appearance of the patient, and in which the user is provided with tools to study the interaction of such craniofacial features to each other and to simulate with a computer changes in craniofacial features (such as by means of proposed tooth extraction, orthodontic manipulation, or surgery) and their effects on the external, visual appearance of the patient, and design optimal therapeutics based upon the unified virtual patient.
A principal benefit of the invention is that it provides a powerful tool to the physician, dentist or orthodontist for diagnosis and treatment planning. The unified workstation provides comprehensive, multiple functionalities in the same unit, thus eliminating the need for more expensive and less efficient multiple workstations wherein each workstation is dedicated to performing one specific function or a limited sub-set of functions necessary for the practitioner's practice. Moreover, the three-dimensional virtual patient model described herein is useful datum for use in a diverse set of possible treatment regimes for treatment of the patient. As such, the virtual patient model (or perhaps some subset of data from the model) can be provided or exported to manufacturers of appliance systems for their use in designing and/or fabricating customized appliances for treatment of the patient, e.g., customized orthodontic appliances.